The ‘Liberal World Order’ (LWO) is today in crisis. But what explains this crisis? Whereas its critics see it as the unmasking of Western hypocrisy, its longstanding proponents argue it is under threat by competing illiberal projects. This book takes a different stance: neither internal hypocrisy, nor external attacks explain the decline of the LWO – a deviation from its original lane does. Emerged as a project aiming to harmonize state sovereignty and the market, through the promotion of liberal democracy domestically, and free trade and economic cooperation internationally, the LWO was hijacked in the 1980s: market forces overshadowed democratic forces, thus disfiguring the LWO into a Neoliberal Global Order. The book advocates for a revival of its original intellectual premises, that in the aftermath of World War II marked the zenith of political modernity.
Author(s): Vittorio Emanuele Parsi
Series: Palgrave Studies in International Relations
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 340
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Praise for The Wrecking of the Liberal World Order
Contents
About the Author
1 The Liberal Order and the Broken Pact Between Democracy and Market
A Diverted Order
The Pillars of the Liberal World Order
The Great Discontinuity: From the “Liberal Triangle” to Rodrik’s Trilemma
The Structure of the Book
References
Part I Out of Route
2 Titanic, or the Unsinkable Order: Origins, Expansion, and Betrayal of the Liberal World Order (1945–2000)
The Origins and Foundations of the Liberal World Order
The Fall of the Berlin Wall: Expansion and Betrayal of the Liberal World Order (1945–2000)
References
3 The Broken Promises That Hijacked the Liberal World Order: A Safer, Fairer, and Richer World
‘A Safer World’: Neither Invulnerable Nor Invincible—9/11, the Afghanistan War, and the Inadequacy of the Military Tool
‘A Fairer World’: The Invasion of Iraq and the Consequences of George W. Bush’s and Tony Blair’s Unpunished Lies
‘A Richer World for Everyone’: The Financial Crisis and the Substitution of Freedom and Equality with Arrogance and Privilege
References
Part II The Four Sides of the Iceberg
4 The Decline of American Leadership and the Rise of Chinese and Russian Authoritarian Powers
‘Anchors away’: the Russians are back and the Chinese are in
From Obama disengagement in the Mediterranean to the Moscow-Tehran-Ankara triangle
The Chinese challenge and the North Korean nuclear pasticcio
References
5 The Molecularization of Threat: Jihadist Terrorism, Islamist Radicalization, and the Mediterranean Tragedy
Non-State Actors’ Threats and the Return of Security as a Source of Legitimacy for State Action
The Migration Issue in the Mediterranean: A European Fiasco and an Oportunity for the Italian Far-Right
Islamist Radicalization and Islamist Terror in Italy: Far from the Far-Right Tale
References
6 The Drift of Trump’s America in the Liberal World Order: From Reluctant Rule-Maker to Revisionist Power
‘It’s the Economy, Stupid!’
Alliances in Trump’s Eyes: There is no Such Thing as Partners, just Rivals
Trump, Netanyahu, Mohamed Bin Salman: It Takes Three for a Dangerous Tango
References
7 The Occultation of the People: How Sovereignist Populism, Stateless Actors, and Technocratic Oligarchies Have Taken on Boarding Democracies
Dancing on the Titanic and Emptying Democracy
The Dead-End Street of Sovereignist Populism
References
Part III A Northwest Passage
8 Changes at the Helm After the Crash? Transitions Within the Liberal World Order and the Challenges for Europe
Europe’s Multiple Challenges
Out of Collision Course: Restoring the Balance Between the Social and Economic Europe
References
9 Conclusions. The Neoliberal Global Order and COVID-19: Which Way Ahead?
Plague on the High Seas, but not All is Lost…
The Past
The Future
References
Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Concepts
